Infy's iRace to see second version in 2014

BANGALORE, INDIA: iRace (Infosys Role and Career Enhancement), the HR initiative at Infosys Technologies, would be around for another five years. Any changes and restructuring in the program would undergo in 2014. The existing program remains unchanged and is, most likely, expected to be rolled out completely by October 2010.

T. V. Mohandas Pai, Director and Head, Finacle, Admin, Human Resources, Infosys Leadership Institute and Education and Research, said that iRace is a career architecture exercise. The program, which has been designed by the HR team, would continue to be the same. The company would look at any new program only after five years. The changes would depend on the market requirements at that point of time.

Talking about the existing program, Nandita Gurjar, senior vice president and group head, Human Resources, Infosys Technologies, said, “We started iRace as a career growth program in October 2009. It is being rolled out in a phased manner. The entire roll-out would end by October 2010.”

She explained that the program started with the first phase mapping of the entire employee strength. Around four thousand employees were mapped at lower capabilities, while the rest of the strength was mapped to their existing stream. The next phase included hiring and promotions based on the results of the mapping. The next phase, which started this month, will include defining of role-paths.

She said, “Under this the employees get opportunity to choose between various streams, departments and domains. They would learn about the various skill sets, certification, technologies required to join the preferred stream after acquiring which they can switch their roles. A project manager aspiring to move to consulting stream, for example, can easily switch between preferences.”

The fourth step is called performance management, where Infosys would rate the employees for the compensations and promotions, based on their capabilities and strengths.

Commenting the employee fury over the program Pai said, “Since the ship started sailing, it went through a lot of turbulent waters. But now it is sailing stable. We have cracked the problem and now we are ready to move ahead.”

He added that the entire market is evolving in this direction and this would be a logical movement in other companies too.